AMHERST – A little over midway through its spring training camp, the University of Massachusetts football team held a 3-hour practice/scrimmage session Saturday at McGuirk Stadium, complete with referees.

It was a nice tuneup on the road to the Minutemen's spring game on April 16, and featured good energy, but so-so execution. The following is the first in a three-part breakdown of how UMass looked, beginning with the offense.

[Note: There was no media access Saturday, so these are just my unofficial observations]

Offense

In general, the offense did not look particularly sharp Saturday. The quarterbacks struggled with placement, the receivers dropped a few balls and the offensive line got pushed around near the goal line.

The offense ran through some basic team work, two-minute drills and the aforementioned goal-line situation. Outside of a few two-yard touchdown runs, only one drive ended in a touchdown (and even that was a result of a crazy individual effort by Jalen Williams).

Given that several key pieces of what will become the UMass offense come September are not yet on campus – QB Blake Frohnapfel, WR Alex Kenney, OL/TE JUCO transfers, etc. – it's maybe not a surprise that the defense is ahead at this point. Still, Saturday was not very pretty.

As expected, Doyle took every first-team rep. He didn't look particularly sharp in 1-on-1 passing drills (5 for 16), a trend that carried over into team scrimmage work. He tossed a couple of interceptions, including a lazy pass into the middle of the field on what looked to be a throwaway that Santos-Knox tapped up into the air to himself. Doyle did have a nice bootleg keeper touchdown on the goal line that faked everyone out, but he seemed to come up a little lame during the drill and began moving with a slight limp.

His best play of the day was a nice throw across the field from the right hash from about 15 yards out that Jalen Williams went up and caught in the back left corner over Trey Dudley-Giles.

Stafford and Verboys split the work behind Doyle. Verboys did most of his damage during 1-on-1s (6 for 8) and didn't look especially comfortable in the pocket during the team scrimmage (he's only 5-foot-11, so he has to rollout a lot anyway). Stafford was the only passer to even attempt to stretch field, and he was rewarded with a nice completion to Kevin Lovaincy on a 50-yard bomb down the left sideline.

Woodley began the session working with the first team, and he looked good in for short stretches. He flashed (i.e. stood out) on a couple nice runs up the gut, including a draw play that went for about 15 yards and a pretty cut-and-go off tackle play to the right that he took down near the goal line. He was less effective in goal-to-go situations (he runs with too high a pad level), and ended up tweaking his left knee (he returned late in practice).

But it was Abrokwah who was the more impressive runner. You might remember him as the walk-on freshman who burned his redshirt to run for a couple hundred yards in the final two games last season. That experience served him well, because he ran with power and authority Saturday. He consistently punished tacklers with his stout frame (5-foot-9, 200 pounds) while also showing good burst to the edge on a very nice off-tackle touchdown in which he just shrugged off Randall Jette at the pylon.

There was a healthy rotation of bodies at wideout, but it's clear Sharpe (61-680-4 in 2013) and the Dean College transfer Williams (25-358-2) are at the top right now, followed by Michel and a host of others. Shakur Nesmith and Rodney Mills would have made the group even deeper, but were held out of practice.

While Sharpe looked his usual self (he absorbed a nasty-looking blow below the waist from Dudley-Giles, too), it was Williams' impressive TD grab near the end of practice that really stood out. Lovaincy's long grab from Stafford got a nice ovation from the sidelines, too.

Howard dropped his only look, while Custis didn't have anything thrown his way. They went into 2-TE sets on several occasions, mostly down near the goal line.

The offensive line is still a work in progress, and the situation will change again when JUCO transfers Liam Porter and Ryan Johnson get into camp in August.

The first-team line held up well in pass protection (the second-stringers gave up a pair of sacks to John Robinson-Woodgett), but struggled to win the line of scrimmage on rushing downs. That was especially so during goal-line work, when blockers were consistently stood up and driven back.

Smith, who started all 12 games at left guard last season, is getting an extended look at left tackle, where took every first-team and most second-team snaps. He looked big and strong, but wasn't really challenge in pass protection (blitzing was kept at a minimum). When he did need a breather, it was Henderson – the starter at right tackle – who slid over.

In Smith's place at guard was Wilkinson, a mammoth freshman (6-foot-4, 330 pounds) who spent 2013 working as a defensive tackle. Bruns, who probably would've gotten some work last year had Vincent Westcarr not come back, worked at right guard in-between Henderson and Sparks. Hoeller is able to play all three interior line positions, but worked exclusively as Spark's backup at center.